2008 Olympics Official Opener

The Skinny

The 2008 Olympic opener is a 30-second sequence combining live action footage with 3D animation. It was produced by Bruce Dunlop & Associates (BDA) Singapore for the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB) Committee. The design is based around the Chinese elements of nature - metal, wood, water, fire and earth, with athletes and elements battling it out in a symbolic representation of the ‘spirit of contest’ at the games. The Clouds of Fortune, the official motif of the Beijing Olympics, combine in swirls around the athletes as a sign of good luck and fortune.

James Chung, creative director (film director for this spot) and Lilian Chow, business director (executive producer for this spot) decided to give this project an Asian slant. “We started looking at Chinese legends and stories, and even explored a Beijing opera kind of concept. Finally we locked down the five elements concept because most of Asia would be familiar with these elements,” said Chung and Chow.

According to traditional Chinese philosophy, all natural phenomena can be distilled to five elements, namely metal, wood, water, fire and earth. The five exist in a fine balance of constant conflict and compromise, and it is through this balance that the universe exists and flourishes.

The Production

The location of the shoot was Singapore’s National University of Singapore Sheares Hall, Clement Swimming Complex and The Saddle Club.

According to BDA, most of the studios in Singapore did not meet their requirements so they had to source for a bigger space with higher ceiling. In addition, there were many factors they had to accommodate, such as budget, location and availability.

The shoot was held mostly indoors, except for two scenes at the swimming complex and the saddle club. With complete control of the filming situation, only the swimming scene was tricky since BDA had to shoot the water texture (rather than actual swimming action).

The task was to condense 14 sports into 26 seconds. The choice of shooting format was 35mm, shooting with a traditional Arriflex film camera at 150 fps proved good enough. When output to HD, the format allowed sharpness for post-production keying purposes.

The biggest challenge was finding the right athletes. It took three months to cast the group of varying ethnicity and genders to represent the international nature of the games. Each athlete had to perform at ‘Olympic standard.’ Each athlete only had to perform for seconds, BDA had to search for, and capture, that one distinctive action that would define each of their sports.

The Post

The post production process took a total of three to four weeks. Maya, After Effects, Final Cut Pro on MAC PRO were utilised for the project. During the pre-production stage, testing was done on texture and water splash, the director was particularly concerned about certain visual effects, which needed elaboration.

The VFX elements of this TVC are as follows:

1. Cloud motif

dBDA used the cloud motif to create depth of field. At times BDA applied it with a distorted perspective to emphasize the grandness of the scene.

2. Chinese painting and calligraphy

BDA opted to go with this as Chinese ink paintings and calligraphy which are instantly recognizable. BDA took the artistic approach to reveal the five rings, and used 3D graphics to create Chinese brush strokes that reveal the ring shapes.

3. Sports icon

The main VFX challenge was the control of the water elements. BDA shot some water splashes and combined the live-action footage with CG to make it look good. Except the equestrian scene, the rest are all chroma key shots.